


Give that Brain a Break

by persephone20



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: ADD/ADHD Tony Stark, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), F/M, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:01:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24048616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephone20/pseuds/persephone20
Summary: I've been looking to write a Bruce/Tony fic since the original Avengers 1 movie in 2012. The muse never worked to make it happen. Not until CharCubed's rewrite of Endgame.I whole heartedly recommend the whole 48k words but, if not that, this is the relevant section that finally encouraged my muse to the keyboard.PEPPER POTTS: I’m not even doing anything! You’re being ridiculous.BRUCE BANNER (O.S.): C’mon Pep, he’s just being cautious.Pepper looks over at Bruce (“Professor Hulk”), who’s standing near a grill, making burgers. He’s wearing a huge apron and holding a too-small spatula.BRUCE BANNER (CONT’D): You’re only a few weeks out. Let him worry.Pepper sighs again but dutifully perches on the end of a picnic bench.TONY STARK: Thank  you, Banner.Bruce salutes with the spatula.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Pepper Potts, Bruce Banner/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26





	Give that Brain a Break

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Endgame: Rewritten](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23737111) by [CharCubed (alwaysanoriginal)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwaysanoriginal/pseuds/CharCubed). 



It's 2019. Again. 

There are days when Tony looks around at this house they've bought (again, for the second time) and wonders just how one man can get so lucky. Not just one time. Oh no. That would probably be a reasonable amount of luck for a man like him. But, for Tony, this is the second time around. For all of it. Marriage to Pepper--she's better to him than he's ever deserved--two-storey cabin near a lake in the woods, new baby on the way. New _old_ baby, he's hoping at least. 

Maybe it'll even be Morgan again, coming back to his life like the rest of everything seems to have. Maybe it won't. Tony's learned the hard way not to take his luck for granted. It has this habit of being unreliable whenever he gets complacent. Even if Pepper doesn't remember most of that.

Excepting for the letter she wrote herself, for Tony to take back in time 5 years, to give to her once they time travelled back before The Snap, for the only chance that _he_ could see to actually defeat Thanos AND give the most of them the life they deserved, sacrificing the actually perfect life that he and Pepper had behind. 

Sometimes he wishes his mind didn't work as quickly as it does. It has this annoying habit of running down worm holes to the past at times when he would just rather be _thankful_. Grateful. He's lucky, dammit.

"Hey." 

Bruce's voice is lighter than Tony's, but huskier too. It carries weight that Tony often tries to shrug away in the process of embracing this life he knows he's lucky to have. 

Because there's just one more thing he didn't have the first time around. Oh, Bruce hadn't been part of the half of the population that ended up in the soul stone, but he hadn't been _here_ either. With him and Pepper. Another set of hands to go around, even if the friendship between Pepper and Bruce was strictly platonic. 

There'd been a time when Tony had thought of Bruce as nothing other than a fellow science-inclined bachelor. He would swear Bruce didn't even notice the make and model of the fancy cars Tony drove around in so long as they were talking about something related to gamma radiation or nanotech. 

Bruce's voice now shows the care and awareness that Tony's stuck in one of his mental worm holes. His hand is on Tony's shoulder, and Tony can already tell just from that touch that he's in his Bruce Banner form, not the combination 'Professor Hulk' one he wanders around in some days. All Tony can say is that he's thankful for Bruce's spacial awareness in that form. Otherwise they'd have a whole lot of renovations they needed to do to this lake house. 

"Hey, I was just... sitting," Tony says. 

"Sitting, huh?" Bruce lifts his hand from Tony's shoulder, walks around the front of him, and takes a seat on the one of the empty couch spots next to him. 

Tony spends a lot of that time trying to conjure up a carefree expression, settling on lifting his eyebrows slightly and glancing off into the distance. Not looking directly a Bruce. Bruce who, like Pepper, knows him well enough that he is somehow able to take one look at him and tell when things are wrong. 

"What's wrong?" Bruce asks. 

"Wrong?" Tony's eyebrows skate downwards before he remembers himself and lifts them again, even higher than before. Great. Now he probably looks startled instead of carefree. Exactly what he wants. "Nothing's wrong. I was just thinking of how lucky we all are."

"Uh _huh_." Bruce doesn't believe him for a second, even though Tony has still to directly look him in the eye. Actually, that might be the thing making him suspicious. 

Tony gives a long exhale, and gives the whole thing up. "Where's Pepper?" he asks, tone dropping to normal, gaze meeting Bruce's, the whole kit and caboodle. 

"Sleeping," Bruce said, smiling back at Tony sympathetically. "She asked for you to wake her up if she doesn't get up on her own by 4 this afternoon." 

Tony bobs his head to that. She's been having trouble sleeping lately. Tony also remembers that from the first time around. Must be really uncomfortable to be almost eight month's pregnant. He taps his knee twice with his first two finger tips. Pauses. Does it again. 

Sometimes, like now, he gets restless and wishes that he hadn't retired from the whole 'hero' gig. There was always something so empowering in getting something done. _Doing_ something. Knowing something would be different later on because of what you've done. 

Instead, he's here on a couch, completely _failing_ to pretend like everything's fine, and tapping restlessly on his knee because he has to do something and there's nothing more productive for him to do. 

"It could have all gone so bad," he utters, almost a whisper, like he's not sure that he wants Bruce to be able to hear him. 

Of course Bruce hears him. "But it didn't." 

They've had this conversation before, but Bruce never seems to get tired of it. The way it goes round and round in circles in Tony's head, even after he did that press conference where he very publicly put the suit down. That had been both his and Pepper's only condition before trying to have a kid again. 

Bruce, though, he never seems to stop knowing the right thing to say. It's part of the reason why Tony is starting to think-- 

No. Well. Too early to think those kinds of thoughts yet, anyway. Not like any words to that effect have even been said out loud between him and Bruce. Though. Tony's starting to feel strange when he says those words to Pepper every day, like maybe he's leaving Bruce out of something he should be a part of. Or that Bruce is feeling left out. 

"Tony." Bruce's familiar husk brings him back to himself with a bump. He blinks hard, eyes widening as he refocuses on Bruce sitting next to him. Bruce gives a soft, kind chuckle and shakes his head. "Sometimes you gotta try to give that brain a break." 

"Try," Tony says agreeably, with a couple of nods. "Not always successful." 

He stands up, not so much to get away from Bruce, as to give into the restless energy slowly starting to eat him up. "Do you ever feel... Like you wanna check in?" His eyes narrow, a little twitch as he gazes back at Bruce, then away again. "You know, to make sure everything outside of this lake house is actually real?" 

Bruce stands too, but he doesn't advance on Tony. He just stays where he is, in front of the couch. "You checked in with Peter two days ago," he says patiently. 

"I know," Tony says, nodding. He's also had a phone conversation with Harley Keener in the last week--that kid who sheltered Tony in his garage that time and is, holy heck, 17 whole years old right now. He wonders whether _not_ giving the kid a suit next year when he's 18 is going to be showing favouritism towards Peter. 

Or that, maybe, needing to keep in contact with these two kids is one of his ways of managing the worries he feels about his kid's upcoming birth. He wants to tap on his knee again, but can't, because he's standing up. 

"What if it's not Morgan?" Tony demands of Bruce, but quietly. He doesn't want to wake Pepper up with this. She knows his concerns, but he doesn't want to burden her further. 

"Then you'll still love the child anyway. She'll still be yours." 

They knew the baby was a girl, at least. An ultrasound early on had given them that information. Would it have been worse, or better, to have had that ultrasound reveal Pepper was carrying a boy? At least then they would have known, all these months. 

Tony nods his head at Bruce's calm words, willing that calm into his own head, and heart. "She'll still be mine," he repeats. 

"And you'll still love her," Bruce says. 

There's that word again. Tony peers up towards Bruce, and wonders just how much is showing on his face. But he doesn't shy away this time. Can't manage to make himself. His breathing slowly quietens the longer he looks at Bruce, and Bruce doesn't back off or break the eye contact. He's still, and comfortable in himself in a way that Tony's still trying to figure out how to be. 

"Bruce," Tony says, and then wonders who that husky tone is coming out of. It certainly can't be him. 

"Yeah?" 

And yet, it totally is. Tony swallows, tries to get rid of the lump in his throat that's trying to... do something. Still, he won't look away from Bruce. "You being here... it means the world to me and Pepper. To _me_ ," he clarifies. 

Bruce's lips quirk a little at that, the first smile he's had during this conversation. "I know that, Tony." 

"No, I mean _really_." Tony opens and closes his mouth realising, abruptly, that he doesn't know how to say this. It's not something he ever expected. He's never been involved with a man in any way, not before Bruce. He'd barely been in relationships with _women_ before Pepper. Now he feels like he's choking on the words he wants to say at the same time as determined that he _needs_ to say them. " _You_ mean the world to me." 

The room is silent around them as the two men stare at each other. Bruce doesn't say anything. It's pretty clear to the two of them--in that silent way of communicating that they have--that it's still Tony's turn to speak and that he doesn't need any prompting from Bruce to do it. 

"I know I took one hell of a risk, going back in time, sacrificing Morgan for the greater good the way that I did back then." Tony finally breaks eye contact with Bruce as tears actually threaten. He's probably never going to be able to stop tearing up every time he thinks of Morgan if the kid Pepper's carrying isn't her. 

Both Tony and Bruce give him a moment to gather himself before doing anything else. Tony takes several deep breaths. At least this feeling isn't like a panic attack. At least he can breathe through it. 

"The thing I'm trying to say," Tony restarts, taking up the courage to look at Bruce once more, still pausing to take those deep breaths each time he needs to. "Is that... we... _I_... didn't have you here back then. Something was incomplete, even if I didn't know it yet. You? Bruce, you complete this family in a way I didn't even know to look for." 

"Tony..." Bruce says, finally speaking. 

"No," Tony interrupts. He's not sure how long it'll take him to get up the courage to bring this up again if he doesn't do it now. "Let me say this. It's important, and won't take long. I love you. That's it." 

Bruce blinks in the wake of this momentous admission and Tony begins to allow himself to hope. Then a laugh comes out of his mouth, like he wasn't quite expecting it, but can't quite stop himself all the same. 

Tony smiles, though he's really not quite sure what's so funny about it. 

"'That's it'? Is that how you told Pepper you loved her?" Bruce asks, amusement still crinkling around his eyes. 

Tony frowns. "Um. I don't see how that's..." _relevant_ , he was going to say. He isn't aware there's anything wrong with the way he says it. But now insecurities are bubbling up to the surface. Nope, his hope was wrong. Recalibrate. Bruce isn't with him in this. This... whatever they've been doing, doesn't mean the same to Bruce as it does to Tony. Bruce is too polite to let him down quickly. For a whole minute, Tony feels himself struck dumb. 

Bruce holds up a hand, but it does nothing to forestall Tony's thoughts. "No, it's okay. I... I wasn't expecting it." 

"You don't feel the same way," Tony realises, taking a step back. This whole version of reality hits him sudden and harder than he expected it to. After everything he's faced. But it has to be okay. He has to make it okay, because he can't bear to lose Bruce completely from his life. He looks away from Bruce. God, he's really fucked it up this time. 

"No... I... I'm sorry." Bruce stutters out, suddenly seeming to realise his tone and laughter was all wrong. "Tony. I've loved you for years. I thought I was the only one. And that was fine. I'm used to it. I--" 

Bruce doesn't get to finish whatever he was saying. Relief fills Tony, until insecurities are a far away memory. There's only one thing he wants to do now. Tony steps into Bruce's space suddenly, reaches out with both hands and kisses him. 

Several moments later, when Tony feels like he can breathe again, and after a wonderfully long time of his brain _actually_ having a break, Tony makes sure that Bruce is looking directly at him when he says firmly, "You're _not_ the only one. Don't ever think that again." 

Bruce smiles, slow and comfortable and relaxed. "Okay, Tony," he agrees. "I won't think that again." 


End file.
